Over the last 18 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded over $$18,887,534 to 553 productions, leading to almost 1,500 subsequent productions at TCG Member Theatres following their world premieres. Forty-one have made it to Broadway, including: Skeleton Crew, Paradise Square, Curtains, 13, Next to Normal, 33 Variations, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Time Stands Still, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Free Man of Color, Good People, Chinglish, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bronx Bombers, Casa Valentina, Outside Mullingar, All the Way, Eclipsed, Bright Star, Hamilton, The Columnist, In Transit, A Doll's House Part 2, Indecent, Dear Evan Hansen, Oslo, Escape to Margaritaville, The Prom, JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt, SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, Head Over Heels, Cost of Living, English (upcoming), and Prayer for the French Republic and McNeal. Twenty-one plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the best play or musical awards. Sixteen plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for Primary Trust (2024), English (2023), The Hot Wing King (2021), Cost of Living (2018), Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).
We hope these profiles will provide insight into each theatre's reasons for producing these plays, and encourage future productions. Information is available online for the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 , 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Edgerton Foundation grantees.
Piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards give plays in development extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The program launched nationally in 2007 and has awarded grants to non-profit theatres for 553 new plays to date. The Edgerton Foundation was awarded the 2011 TCG National Funder Award.
Testimonials:
From 2024: “I want to thank the Edgerton Foundation for its support of our production of The Janeiad by Anna Ziegler. Having this extra week of rehearsal has proved incredibly helpful for the whole team but especially for Miriam Laube who plays ten different roles. It has been such a luxury to have this time months before rehearsals begin to carve out what makes each character different and to start to be able to realize them long before our originally scheduled rehearsals start. Anna Ziegler is an important and prolific American playwright who has had productions at major theaters across the country and in NYC including The Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Geffen Theatre. While there are many plays that deal with the direct aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, The Janeiad is a rare look at a widow (Jane) 20 years after the event focusing on how it shaped her life and how she longs to be reunited with her dead husband. The epic nature of 9/11 is fused with the epic of Homer's Odyssey with Penelope coming into Jane's life and helping her to wait 20 years for her husband just as she waited for Odysseus. The play is full of humor, poetry, and longing and is an important contribution to the American Theatre. We are so grateful for Edgerton's support in helping us realize this world premiere.” —Rob Melrose, Artistic Director, Alley Theatre
From 2022: “We have lost so much in the past two years, and I don’t take for granted that those of us still living are blessed to have survived. The pandemic has left many of us wondering, ‘How do we move forward?’ In Every Generation features the Levi-Katz family dealing with the fallout of situations beyond their control—much like the last two years we all just endured. This family moves forward with love, humor, joy, and a commitment to healing long-held hurts. I am hopeful this play inspires those who see it to do the same,” said Ken-Matt Martin, artistic director, Victory Gardens Theater. “With the Edgerton Foundation’s support of two additional weeks of rehearsal, director Devon DeMayo and playwright Ali Viterbi, along with the cast and crew, will be able work out technical challenges such as how the cast can pass and consume food safely in light of health concerns and execute dialect work since In Every Generation includes dialogue in three languages: English, Hebrew and Italian.”
From 2018: "The Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards shape the best work being made in the American theatre and there is no greater evidence than the national and international impact their support is having. We can draw a hard, strong line from the support Edgerton gave us at Williamstown Theatre Festival for the world premiere of Martyna's Majok's Cost of Living to the Pulitzer Prize for Drama it was awarded this year,” said Mandy Greenfield, artistic director, Williamstown Theatre Festival. “We are profoundly grateful for their continued support this season and are honored to have three of our world premiere productions—by brilliant, unique, and wildly diverse storytellers—making their way into the world with greater artistic resources as a result of Edgerton's visionary leadership in the field of new work."
From 2016: “The Edgerton Grant has been critical to the realization of this project. The funds allowed us to do two things: to conduct a one week workshop with the entire creative team focused on the text; and to add a week of rehearsal before opening the play in September,” said Tony Taccone, Artistic Director and Co-Adaptor of It Can’t Happen Here at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. “The grant propelled us forward, giving us the resources and the time to shape our ideas, and the confidence to create a play that has the potential to make a difference.”
From 2014: “We are so deeply grateful for this New Play Award from the Edgerton Foundation, which will provide the creative team of The Comparables another full week of rehearsal,” said Jeffrey Herrmann, managing director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. “The additional time will allow the cast to work with a fight director to enhance the naturalism of the physical altercations between the characters. All this ensures that we will launch this script and production into the field at the highest possible level of finish.”
From 2011: “Support from the Edgerton New American Plays Fund makes it possible for theaters such as my own to contemplate producing new work. In Maine, it is difficult to find the resources necessary to give new projects the rehearsal time they require to launch successfully, “ said Anita Stewart, executive and artistic director of Portland Stage (Portland, ME). “New play development should infuse the heart and soul of theaters in a variety of communities. Audiences everywhere need to be invited to participate in the scary, messy, exhilarating process of bringing a new work to life, and writers deserve the opportunity to see the impact of their work on a community.”
From 2010: "“Our Edgerton grant for Wanamaker’s Pursuit is crucial to its development,” said Amy Murphy, managing director of Arden Theatre Company. “We know from our talks and experience with playwright Rogelio Martinez that he makes extensive use of early rehearsals to revise and clarify. Set in the art world of 1911 Paris, with fashion designer Paul Poiret as one of the major characters, Wanamaker's Pursuit also affords remarkable opportunities for our design team. The extended development process will allow the designers more time to collaborate with Martinez to create a world that captures this most remarkable time and place.”
From 2009: “There is no replacement for time when it comes to developing new plays. Our recent production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s break though trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays, is testament to that fact,” said Emily Mann, McCarter Theatre artistic director. “In large part due to the extended rehearsal period provided by the Edgerton Foundation, The Brother/Sister Plays opened to great acclaim at McCarter Theatre. The plays then moved on to our partner, The Public Theater in New York, where audiences and critics alike hailed McCraney as one of the new voices of his generation.”
Plays that have been seen in New York include the following:
Broadway Productions after Regional Productions:
• 13
• 33 Variations (Tony nomination)
• All the Way (Tony winner)
• Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Pulitzer finalist, Tony nomination)
• Bright Star (Tony nomination)
• Bronx Bombers
• Chinglish
• The Columnist
• Curtains (Tony nomination)
• Dear Evan Hansen
• Diana
• Doll's House Part 2
• Eclipsed (Tony nomination)
• Hamilton (Tony nomination, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
• Head Over Heels
• In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) (Pulitzer finalist, Tony nomination)
• In Transit
• Indecent
• Jagged Little Pill
• JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt
• Next To Normal (Pulitzer winner, Tony nomination)
• Oslo
• SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical
• Time Stands Still (Tony nomination)
• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony Award for Best Play)
• Escape to Margaritaville
Broadway World Premieres:
• Free Man of Color (Pulitzer finalist)
• Good People (Tony nomination)
• Casa Valentina
• Outside Mullingar
• Lost Lake
• The Prom
Off Broadway Productions after Regional Productions:
• Back, Back, Back,
• The Brother/Sister Plays
• Completeness
• Chinglish
• Dear Evan Hansen
• The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety (Pulitzer finalist)
• Equivocation
• Indecent
• Restoration
• Water by the Spoonful (Pulitzer winner, 2012)
• Wittenberg
• Vietgone
Off Broadway World Premieres:
• Break of Noon
• By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
• Burnt Part Boys
• Farragut North
• A Funny Thing Happened...
• Grand Manner
• Kin
• King Liz
• In Transit
• Rapture, Blister, Burn (Pulitzer finalist)
• Ripcord
• This